Denthor wrote on Dec 5, 2013, 16:23:I think the comparison to sponsor ship is pretty accurate - they are getting paid to endorse riots product not competitors. The onus is on the player signing the contract whether they think it's fair to them financially, if not they don't have to sign it.

Indeed. To be sure it's rough, but that's consistent with how professional sports already operate (and after all, this is eSports). If you're going to pay someone to promote your product, you want to be damn sure they aren't also promoting your competitor.

Verno wrote on Dec 4, 2013, 09:55:It really annoys me that they're not only shipping DLC before fixing some pretty glaring problems in the game but also introducing even more bugs into the equation.

Keep in mind that DLC development primarily involves art and scripting, whereas the bulk of the bugs are in the engine. It looks better to fix the bugs first, but having the content teams twiddling their thumbs is not very productive.

jdreyer wrote on Nov 30, 2013, 13:38:In the NE, they're still pretty rife. I can't remember a house I lived in or visited that didn't have a radiator system, whether it was the old fashioned tall ones that were typically placed right in front of a window, or the baseboard ones.

It's all about the age of the house. Out here in the West everything except the older of houses - anything built immediately post-WW2 or older - has forced air of some kind. And I'm thankful for it; forced air plus dirt cheap natural gas has been a very good combination.

Verno wrote on Nov 25, 2013, 13:00:It may well turn out that the current market can only support one handheld but people said the same thing about the DS and PSP. The PSP platform turned out pretty well despite major problems in its first few years. I don't see a valid reason for Sony to cut and run yet.

The PSP was never this far behind the DS though. The PSP was the most successful non-Nintendo handheld ever, selling 80M units to the DS's 155M, or a ratio of about 1:2. But for the Vita/3DS that ratio is currently 1:7, and worse, Vita sales have been slowing down. At this point even an absurdly optimistic outcome for the Vita will have it come in well behind the 3DS and the PSP. It still has to nearly double its sales just to match the Game Gear.

Jivaro wrote on Nov 25, 2013, 13:09:The last year, and in particular the last 6 months, has been pretty good though. More then enough games coming in regular intervals, and PS+ actually got more generous. Being able to use it with the PS4 (and in some ways with the PS3) is pretty damn cool as well. Sony screwed the launch up, but I have to give them credit for sticking with it. It's an awesome bit of hardware, so I am glad they didn't just walk away from it. Now if only they would bring the memory prices down to something even close to reasonable.

Have you seen the launch schedule for 2014 though? There's absolutely jack-all for new AAA games from non-Japanese developers. The only things that are confirmed are MLB14 and the Lego Movie Game. Everything else is either a hand-me down such as FFX or BL2, or an import. There's a distinct lack of new AAA games being commissioned at this point, which spells trouble for the Vita (and I say this dejectedly as a Vita owner).

Redmask wrote on Nov 24, 2013, 13:30:this is genuinely starting to affect design as developers are forced to make design concessions for revenue tools in games. Ignoring it and hoping for the best isn't working, there are enough children with their parents credit card who impulse purchase everything they can for achievements and other knickknacks that companies throw at them.

And that's what this is really all about. If microtransactions were happening off in their own little universe, we'd probably complain some, but at the end of the day we'd laugh at the misfortune of others and not care.

But that's not what's happening. Even PC games are being designed to suck your wallet dry; whole genres of games are being abandoned (or radically altered) to make room for microtransactions. Just look at BF3/BF4 and their unlock packs, for a start.

And the worst part about all of this? It works. People are paying for these elements, and in large enough numbers that despite our pleas for what this is doing to gaming, the business side of the equation shows that this highly effective way to increase profits. It's not enough to merely be opposed to microtransactions, and it's becoming increasingly clear that we're going to have to kill their whales (figuratively speaking) if we want this problem to stop.

Cutter wrote on Nov 19, 2013, 21:24:Why is it a poor example? I've never understood this pig-headed no-negotiation bullshit. If I'm ever taken captive your fuckin' A I want my government to negotiate. Want to gamble with someone elses life that's their business. Just don't do it with mine.

Because if there's a payout, it encourages other criminals to setup the same racket. The only way to keep that kind of crime at bay is to make sure it doesn't pay.

PropheT wrote on Nov 17, 2013, 12:43:My impression so far is that the reports of failures are really overblown by an extremely vocal and connected gaming community, but that said...it's probably still not a bad idea if you can afford it. I've been considering getting the extra warranty myself.

Ditto. There are absolutely malfunctioning/damaged consoles out there and people unfortunate enough to have one. But like most issues of this nature, the ratio of reported broken consoles to working consoles is going to be out of whack as the people with working consoles are going to be too busy playing on them to say anything.

I am perfectly fine with strategy games at 30fps, and I can even put up with action games at 30fps. But a racing game at 30fps is absurd; it is the genre that absolutely benefits the most from higher framerates.